crate

S

Shelby's mom

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Shelby will be 2 this April. We still crate her when we are away for an exteneded amount of time such as when we are at work. She has full run of the house if we are gone a short time. She needs to be in the crate mainly because she goes crazy if she sees or hears the kids playing basket ball, she jumps at the windows and barks non stop (she wants to play with them). We then come home to find her exhausted and her water bowl completely empty. We have had several tainers tell us it is pretty much impossible to stop her from doing this. If we are home I can keep her distracted rather than focusing on the kids. There is no way to isolate her from the windows, so I am afraid she will need to be crated her entire life. Is it a bad thing to have to keep her in the crate when we go to work? She does not mind being in her crate at all, and when we get home she just lays there looking at us like "do I have to get up now". We are considering creating a family room in our basement, and thought maybe she could have the run of that room rather than her crate, but I don't know what would be best for her. Other than this she is very well behaved. I jus worry that she will hurt herself when we are not here to control her.
 
Sounds like she's much better off in her crate, than running around barking all day. Who plays basketball while you are working? Don't the kids have to be in school?:confused2:
 
If you make a room in the basement it might be good. Don't know how she would do without windows.

You could always put a video camera there to see how she does alone.
 
Have you tried using an x-pen in another room of your house?

I think that crating a dog all day is fine, I know I sometimes have to do it with my two. But I know that I feel guilty and one solution that seemed to work for me was to put an x-pen in one room. They have more room, but I know they are in a safe environment.

I've watched mine via webcam before, and all they do is sleep. So don't feel too bad.
 
I don't see anything wrong with crating all day. A properly crate trained dog is not stressed out by being in their all day since, to them, it's their "room" in your house. And, as Ashley stated, they tend to sleep all day anyway. (I work at home one day a week and they sleep all day even when I'm there.)

If you want to give her more space, an x-pen is the way to go.
 
Thanks everyone. I guess I just needed the reassurance that what we were doing was alright for her. She definitely has no issues being crated all day, she actually gets excited for us to leave. I thought about the xpen but I figure it isn't that much diffrent than the crate. I guess I just feel guilty because our previous sheltie had the run of the house at 4 mos.

The kids are in school but they are home before us. I have tried working with the kids but they are not the least bit interested. Plus I don't know how often they are out there in the summer.

I guess as long as she is happy and it saves us from a lot of stress then it is OK.
 
For the daytime, you could get her a large crate, someting bigger than the crate you use to take her to the vet, etc.
 
We have to crate our 2year old (because she cannot be housetrained!) and young 6 months old (because he may eat electric wires at 240vlt!) I was upset at having to crate them so set up a video. It was such a relief to watch them lying in the crate sleeping happily throughout the time we were out. Recommended:biggrin2:
 
I like the video idea. I bet she sleeps all day too. My father in law videoed his two dogs once. All day the just slept and only got up to move to a different chair or sofa, they did nothing else.
 
We crate Sandstorm for 7 hours monday thru friday. I work in a school, so I have plenty of time off also, and on weekends we don't crate. I can't feel bad about it, our dog is much safer in his crate. If he wasn't crated, he would get into things, chew paper and who knows what else. He is 2 1/2 years old, and I can't see leaving him out of the crate in the near future. I don't worry about him at all during the day, and he has adjusted.
 
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